


Delivery

by sub_divided



Category: Final Fantasy VII (Video Game 1997), Final Fantasy VII Remake (Video Game 2020)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Vampire, FFVII Halloween Week 2020, Multi, Vampires
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-26
Updated: 2020-10-26
Packaged: 2021-03-08 23:54:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,288
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27215242
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sub_divided/pseuds/sub_divided
Summary: If you took the wrong turn down the short and narrow alley, you could miss it - six cracked steps down to the nearly hidden half-basement door.  A small plaque next to the door indicated it was a hookah bar and coffee shop.Inside, you might be forgiven for thinking you’d stumbled into a Victorian London cosplayer meetup.   Gentlemen in top hats and tailcoats lounged next to other gentlemen in harem pants, and old women in leather breeches and ruffled silk shirts discussed the need to ventilate one’s drafty old mansion with young women in morning dresses who’d left their parasols by the entrance.Cloud checked - again - the address on the delivery order.***Vampire AU for FFVII Halloween Week 2020.
Relationships: Aerith Gainsborough/Cloud Strife, Sephiroth/Cloud Strife
Comments: 14
Kudos: 42





	Delivery

**Author's Note:**

> Previously posted for for AUgust 2020... hope no one minds if I post it again. The other stuff I'm writing for this week will be new. 
> 
> <https://ffviihalloween.tumblr.com/>
> 
> OCT 26 ❄️ **The Thing** trapped with the eldritch / cosmic horror / aliens

If you took the wrong turn down the short and narrow alley, you could miss it - six cracked steps down to the nearly hidden half-basement door. A small plaque next to the door indicated it was a hookah bar and coffee shop. 

Inside, you might be forgiven for thinking you’d stumbled into a Victorian London cosplayer meetup. Gentlemen in top hats and tailcoats lounged next to other gentlemen in harem pants, and old women in leather breeches and ruffled silk shirts discussed the need to ventilate one’s drafty old mansion with young women in morning dresses who’d left their parasols by the entrance. 

Cloud checked - again - the address on the delivery order. 

4B, Cortlandt Alley. There was no address on the door but it was the only one between 2 and 8 that wasn’t boarded up. 

He hesitated for a moment, not sure what to make of the tableau, and - though none of the customers turned their heads - of the feeling that all the attention in the room was suddenly on him.

It was eerie to feel like you were being stared at while no one would meet your eye. He felt like a piece of meat - like he was being weighed and evaluated, somehow - as if _he_ was the curious one. 

But the tip on the online grocery order had been very good, and rent was coming up soon. He stepped across the threshold, feeling a strange kind of permanence to the action. No going back now.

The barista caught his eye in one of hers - bright red, he realized with a start. But she seemed friendly, so he carried the grocery bags over the counter and set them down.

“First time, eh?” She asked, smiling sympathetically. “What’s the name on the order?”

...Weird, but Cloud appreciated not having to talk first. If he’d been more social, he’d have a job in an office and not through an odd tasks and deliveries app on his phone. 

“Aerith Gainsbourg,” he said. 

“Oh, Aerith should be here in a minute, she just stepped out,” the barista told him. “Why don’t you take a seat at one of the tables.”

“...They’re all full,” Cloud said, “I’ll wait outside.” 

It wasn’t completely true - a few tables had space at the ends, across from the customers - but Cloud was having second thoughts about joining this group. The air seemed to get heavier the longer he stayed inside. He picked up Aerith’s groceries and started to leave the bar, sighing internally - he’d been hoping to take another job after this, but if Aerith took too long he’d have to scratch those plans to make his online class at 6pm. 

“Why don’t you sit with us?” The man’s voice startled Cloud, who hadn’t sensed anyone coming up behind him. He tensed, then made himself relax. It was just one of the weird cosplayers, no reason to be so jumpy.

“No thanks,” he said, without turning around.

“Oh… but I insist,” the voice drawled. Cloud stiffened as he felt a hand at his elbow. Fighting back the urge to slap the hand away, he slowly turned around.

The man in front of him wore a silk shirt open to his waist, tucked into high waisted black trousers with a gleaming silver belt buckle. He was taller and broader than Cloud, with long silver hair despite looking about the same age. His eyes were a piercing blue-green, and surprisingly familiar - after a second Cloud realized it was like looking into a mirror. He realized he’d been staring, drawn into the stranger’s face, and averted his eyes. 

“No thanks,” he repeated, and tried to circle around the man to the exit. 

As he backed away, the stranger followed, continuing to invade Cloud’s space. He scowled and looked around - but no one in the cafe would meet his eyes. It was as if the two of them did not exist for the other patrons. Cloud felt a chill run down his back - what would happen if he just let this happen? It didn’t seem like anyone here would stop this. 

Stop being so passive, he reminded himself. Stand up for yourself, aren’t you… a man?

He wasn’t sure if he really was a man, but more assertiveness was definitely called for here. 

“Knock it off, or I’ll deck you,” he said, trying the best he could to impersonate the rude, rough boys he’d grown up with. He deepened his voice and growled it. 

“Please do,” the man said pleasantly, and smiled as he took another step towards Cloud, who instinctively backed away.

Stand your ground! “Are you just going to let this happen?” he cooly asked the barista, who was studiously not looking at him, just like the rest of the bar. “Kick this guy out, he’s harassing me.”

Tifa sighed, as if none of this was surprising. “Seph, you’re being rude,” she said lowly. “You know we have rules here - Aerith has dibs on him.”

Wait… what?

“Aerith isn’t here,” Sephiroth told her, smiling. “And I doubt _you_ want to challenge me for him.” 

_Know your place._

Cloud glanced around wildly - who had said that?

“I don’t want to, but I will if I have to… This is a neutral zone, follow the bar rules or you’re banned again.”

“It might be worth it,” Sephiroth said, turning again to look at Cloud…

...Hungrily? Cloud refused to look away this time, and stared back. He felt even as he did it that it was the wrong thing to do, he’d only drawn more attention to himself. Sephiroth smiled at him and his eyes started to glow, they seemed to turn more green and to swirl, like sea form…

“Hands off,” a female voice said, as a hand passed between his eyes and Sephiroth’s. Cloud blinked, only then realizing that he’d instinctively moved forward towards the man he’d been trying to escape just a moment before. He stepped back again, and this time Sephiroth made no move to follow.

“Aerith,” he said instead, sounding annoyed. “You shouldn’t show off your toys like this.”

“I was doing no such thing, I just had some business to take care of first,” Aerith told him. She took Cloud by the arm and led him away and to a small table in the back. “I apologize for him,” she said. “He’s very competitive with me. And in his defense, you are even more appetizing than I thought you’d be. I think the entire bar must be a little in love with you, you have the most intriguing scent… but don’t worry, I won’t let them have you.”

Aerith smiled at him then, and her eyes, also, started to turn. “I ordered you first, you’re mine,” she said, and leaned forward…

Cloud noticed the fangs just a little too late. 

It wasn’t so bad, though. A bit like smoking from the hookah. Afterward he felt euphoric, but calm. And the tip was better than he thought, too. 

Waking up later in the day, in his apartment, he couldn’t remember how he’d gotten home. Aerith had draped her shawl over him and put all the groceries away in his refrigerator. He had a bit of a splitting headache, and a slightly crazed urge to return to the hookah bar right away.

No. He wouldn’t. Only drunks dealt with a hangover by getting another drink. And he had class at six, anyway. 

Cloud knew from experience, the best way to handle an addiction was to be disciplined about it, and stick to a schedule. 

He pulled up the calendar app on his phone. Another two days ought to do it.

Then he pulled up the job app, and left Aerith a five-star review and a note.

**Author's Note:**

> Comments welcome here or on [tumblr](https://subdee.tumblr.com/), thanks for reading!


End file.
